ENRON: THE SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM delivers more than an average documentary it is entertaining, educational and alarming.Our September selection comes to you with an eye to the past, specifically on the checkered story of energy and commodities giant Enron, which began its dramatic collapse 20 years ago next month.īy transferring troubled assets to outside entities (keeping them off Enron’s own books), using unrealized future income to pad profit-and-loss statements and otherwise concealing debt, executives’ conspired against and defrauded investors and creditors at an astronomical scale.
#ENRON THE SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM STREAMING MOVIE#
The movie is mostly apolitical, however, content to chase down the trail of corporate lies.Īlso of note, a very brief scene inside a strip club should keep out younger viewers. No explicit claims are made, but the filmmakers imply that Bush chose not to pursue harsher punishments for Lay and his Enron cronies because of their deep history.
Bush and his father were close friends and associates of Ken Lay. The greed and hubris exhibited by Enron execs is a sad reminder of mankind’s base tendency toward selfishness and sinfulness.īe warned, sensitive conservative viewers: The movie establishes that both George W. Following Enron’s trail is like solving a huge mystery, though most audiences will find the movie sobering. THE SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM untangles the wide web in a way that is very easy to follow and engaging, almost exciting. Further, CFO Andy Fastow was creating corporations in which he could stash Enron’s corporate debt so that investors would not see the company’s negative cashflow. These projected figures misled stock buyers into thinking that Enron was making huge profits, when it was really taking losses on many ventures. President Jeff Skilling had engaged the company in an accounting practice called “mark-to-market” which effectively allowed Enron to estimate future profits but count them on the books as current profits. Sadly, these pronouncements were all folly. Corporate oracle Fortune magazine was enamored with the company and heaped superlatives on them throughout the 90s, including “America’s Most Innovative Company” and one of the “Best Companies to Work for in America.” At this point, Enron began to grow exponentially, acquiring a large electric power company in the Pacific Northwest and starting an Internet venture to resell bandwidth. It soon grew into an energy trading company, like a miniature version of Wall Street, that brokered international energy commodities. The movie profiles its two leaders, CEO Ken Lay and President Jeff Skilling, who lied and cashed in while their 20,000 employees were robbed of their life savings.Įnron began in Texas as a natural gas company. Content:ĮNRON: THE SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM is a compelling, fast-paced inquiry into the buildup of Enron and its very public undoing.
There is brief nudity, but the documentary manages to be entertaining, educational, and alarming. The greed and hubris exhibited by Enron execs is a sad reminder of mankind’s tendency toward selfishness and sinfulness. THE SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM untangles the wide web in a way that is very easy to follow and almost exciting, though most audiences will find the movie sobering. As executives were fabricating the company’s profits, they were cashing out their stock before the truth came out and the company collapsed.
Sadly, high-level executives were using accounting practices that made it easy to deceive investors and continually raise the stock price. At this point, Enron began to grow by huge measures, and Fortune magazine named it “America’s Most Innovative Company.” Enron began in Texas as a natural gas company, but soon moved into trading, like a miniature version of Wall Street that brokered international energy commodities. The movie profiles CEO Ken Lay and President Jeff Skilling, who lied and cashed in while 20,000 employees were robbed of their life savings. ENRON: THE SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM is a compelling, fast-paced documentary about the buildup of Enron and its public undoing.
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